Cookies and Lies
by karly05
Summary: As Doof once taught us in song, people lie to spare each other's feelings, but even though they're little and white, they're lies. Ferb is about to learn this the hard way. Another in my Ferb/Vanessa Friendship Series.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N – In the recent episode, "Let's Bounce," Doof sings about his theory that "Lies are the glue that holds society together." When he sings, "They lie to spare each other's feelings," there's a shot of him pretending to like Vanessa's apparently yucky cupcakes. That led to this…**

Cookies and Lies – Part One

It was a lovely summer Saturday morning in the Flynn-Fletcher back yard. Three years after what was still referred to, more often than not, as "The Rollercoaster Summer," surprisingly little had changed. Phineas had kicked off the day with a confident, "Ferb, I know what we're going to do today!" and, once in the back yard, had puzzled, "Hey, where's Perry?" Isabella had come through the gate with a flirty, "Hi, Phineas. What'cha doin'?" and Phineas still had not noticed – or at least had pretended not to notice – her eyelash-fluttering tone. Buford and Baljeet had turned up in their own good time, engaged in their usual frenemic-bromantic banter. Ferb found the routine comforting, if a bit repetetive, as he made his usual contribution by whipping up the blueprints for Phineas's Collapsible Refrigerator.

Now, Baljeet was poring over Ferb's plans on the lookout for any mistakes. The green-haired boy's mouth curled up slightly at one corner as he wondered how long it would take the Math Genius to spot the miniscule miscalculation he had put in this time. Ferb couldn't remember now when he had started doing this, but it had become something of a private little game for him. It never affected the final plans, but Baljeet got such a thrill out of catching and correcting Ferb's errors, he simply couldn't stop.

Baljeet was still engrossed in the blueprints, Isabella and Buford were bickering over something pointless, and Phineas was calling around in search of some environmentally-friendly coolant, when Ferb's own cell phone chirped in his pocket. He fished it out and cast a careless glance at it to see who could be texting him. At once, he froze, heart racing, as her name flashed on the screen.

_At your house. Come out._

That was all it took. Ferb bolted through the gate without a backward glance. Sure enough, the little rosewood sedan was parked at the end of their front walk, and the Loveliest Girl on Earth was getting out of it. Vanessa Doofenshmirtz had just finished her freshman year of college a couple of weeks ago, but this was the first time Ferb had seen her since she'd come home for the summer. Gobsmacked as usual by the mere sight of her, he paused for a moment to regain his balance before he went hiking across the lawn, waving a hand as he approached.

"Oh, good, you're here," said Vanessa.

She seemed slightly agitated, thought Ferb, and had skipped her usual, _"Hey, Ferb, how's it going?"_ Her hair, cut to just above her shoulders, was pulled back in a clip behind her neck, and she was wearing a blood red _Scraping Fangs_ t-shirt that fit her in a frankly distracting manner. With a valiant effort, Ferb trained his eyes on her face and smiled. "Hello, Vanessa. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

She gave him a smile in return, but he still sensed a bit of nervousness in it. When she said, "I brought you something," he realized there was an object in her hand. "It's a cookie," she added, although he had discerned this by now. It was folded in a paper napkin, and he accepted it from her.

"Thank you." He was a bit puzzled by this gesture, but if Vanessa had come all the way to his house just to bring him a cookie, he certainly was not going to complain.

"I made it myself," she was going on in a bit of a blather. "It's a carrot raisin cookie, it's from my Great-Great-Grandmother Doofenshmirtz's recipe. Try it, I want to know what you think."

Ferb looked at the cookie in his hand; it was about three inches in diameter, thin and flat, with raisins and visible bits of carrot projecting from the top. When he bit into it, it began to crumble, and he had to hold the napkin under his mouth to catch the crumbs. Vanessa was looking at him with anxious eyes and an encouraging smile as he munched. Ferb was very glad that he'd always had such a good poker face, because the cookie, quite frankly, was – well, it wasn't _awful_, it wasn't burnt or anything, but it was dry and crunchy, and the thick, tough shreds of carrot didn't help. He gamely took another bite as he contemplated how to answer when Vanessa said, "Well?"

"Mm," said Ferb, nodding his head.

"Good?" Vanessa pressed.

"Mm," said Ferb again, popping in another bite as an excuse not to speak.

"Not too dry?"

"Unh," said Ferb, shaking his head this time. "Lots of raisins," he mumbled appreciatively as he finished choking it down.

Vanessa let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad they turned out all right. It's my first time making them. I don't do a lot of baking." And, just as he started to worry that she was going to hand him a whole batch of the cookies, Vanessa gave him a quick, "Thanks, Ferb!" and hopped back into her car. As she zipped away, Ferb brushed the crumbs off his shirt. He felt just a bit guilty for leading her on, but he couldn't bear the thought of hurting her feelings, not when the cookie was obviously so important to her. And who knew – maybe that was how Drusselsteinian cookies were supposed to taste.

_To Be Continued…_


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N - I have this basically finished; it's going to be five parts plus a brief coda at the end, and I plan to post one new part per day. And, oh yeah, Dan & Swampy Own the Universe.**

Cookies and Lies – Part Two

It was late that afternoon in the Flynn-Fletcher home. The Collapsible Refrigerator had worked like a dream, and they had sold the prototype to a fellow from the KeenKamp company. As much as Ferb admired his brother's spirit of generosity, he was glad he'd finally persuaded Phineas to start making a bit of money off their more marketable inventions. The rest of their routine had played out as it generally did these days. Their pet platypus had turned up out of nowhere, prompting Phineas to remark, "Oh, there you are, Perry." Buford and Baljeet had departed. Isabella had extended an invitation to come across the street for ice cream, and Phineas had accepted on behalf of both of them, but Ferb knew that Isabella wasn't exactly pining for his company, and had politely excused himself. Mum and Dad were working at the antique shop, Candace was out with Stacy, Perry was napping on Phineas's bed, and Ferb was sprawled on the couch with his nose in a book. All in all, a pleasant afternoon.

That was when the doorbell rang.

Ferb was barely on his feet when it rang again, and kept ringing at three-second intervals. Answering it, he found Vanessa on their front porch. Ferb was stunned at the sight of her – and not in the usual, blissful way. She was scowling at him, her cheeks nearly as red as her shirt. The look of pain and fury in her eyes struck him like an arrow as she demanded, "How could you do that to me?"

Caught by surprise, all Ferb could do was blink.

"Oh, don't give me that look!" Vanessa railed, although he didn't think he had given her anything approaching a 'look.' "You _lied_ to me!" Clenching her fists, she paced back and forth, her boots echoing off the concrete. "Those cookies were _horrible_." Ferb caught the sob in her voice as she said, "Everyone _hated_ them."

"E-everyone?" he ventured, not knowing exactly whom she meant by this.

Her shoulders slumped as she folded her arms and lamented, "I made those for our family picnic. Everyone was bringing food, and I wanted to do something special and –" This time her eyes were full of hurt and confusion when she said, in a softer voice that cut even more keenly to his core, "You lied to me, Ferb."

_Oh, blast_, he thought. That was why she had brought him the cookie this morning. How was he to have known? Heart pounding, stomach churning, he murmured, "I didn't know what you meant to do with them…"

"Is that supposed to be an excuse?" she snapped, her anger rising again.

"N-no," he faltered, a suffocating pressure gripping his chest, "but – I-I didn't want to hurt your feelings."

"I'm not a little girl, Ferb," she glared at him. "I can take some constructive criticism. That's why I brought you the stupid cookie in the first place! I needed an honest opinion – but I guess that was asking too much of you."

Ferb felt his throat tighten and clenched his jaw before it began to tremble. Sometimes it was easy for him to forget that he was a mere lad of thirteen, and Vanessa was an adult. But right now, she was making him feel every inch a child, a foolish, pathetic child, unworthy of her friendship, or affection, or…

"No one in the family would tell me to my face," she ranted on. "Oh, but they had no trouble talking behind my back. 'This would kill Great-Grandma Gretel if she weren't already dead.' 'Who would have guessed that Heinz would be a better cook than his daughter?' 'Hey, Roger, you'd better issue a disaster declaration for these.' _Then_ my Dad started hearing about it, and he got his Moisture-Suckinator and used it to dry out the rest of the food at the picnic 'to make my cookies look good by comparison.' Everything was ruined! It was the _worst_ Doofenshmirtz Family Reunion _ever!_ And that's saying something." Finally running out of steam, she stood panting and grinding her teeth.

Meekly, Ferb broke the silence. "Vanessa, I'm sorry…"

"NO!" she spoke over him, clapping her hands to her head in exasperation. "Don't even start! I thought I could trust you, Ferb. Out of all the people in the world, I thought you were the one person who would always be honest with me." With a sigh of mingled disgust and disappointment, she gave him one last look. "I was wrong."

Ferb racked his brain for something to say, something that would make everything better, but he could find no words. He thought he could see a faint trace of moisture in Vanessa's eyes in the instant before she turned away and stalked off down the walk. Instinctively, he reached out one hand, silently begging her to come back, but she never looked at him again as she got in the car and sped away.

How on earth was he ever going to fix this?

_To Be Continued…_


	3. Chapter 3

Cookies and Lies – Part Three

Ferb always had been good at keeping things to himself, but not even he could cover this one up. At the dinner table, when he poked glumly at his Mum's usually irresistable meat loaf, Dad said, "Everything all right, old chap?" Startled at having been caught, Ferb managed a nod, and shoveled in a good sized chunk of his dinner as proof that everything was just peachy. _Lies_, he scolded himself, _more lies._

When they were finished, Mum said, "Ferb, why don't you help me clear away these dishes?" Phineas jumped up and offered to pitch in, as well, but Mum told him, "No, hon, I need you to take out the trash." Thus, Ferb found himself standing next to his mother at the kitchen sink with no one else nearby. "Ferb, sweetie," she said, rinsing a plate, "is something the matter?"

He was quiet for a moment, lining up glasses in the dishwasher rack, before he said, "Just stupid kid stuff."

"I know you do most of the listening around here," she handed him the plate, "but I'm a pretty good listener, too. Sometimes it helps to talk things out."

Ferb replied with a vague nod and the shrug of one shoulder. He wished he could talk it out with Mum, but he knew that once he told her anything, he would end up telling her everything, and she would almost certainly disapprove of him palling around with a college girl older than Candace. Holding his tongue, he finished loading the dishwasher, then felt his mother's hand on his back. As he turned toward her, she folded him into her arms and gave him a squeeze. "I love you, sweetie."

"Love you, too, Mum." Ferb hugged her around the waist and reached up to kiss her cheek.

"Hey, where's mine?" Phineas demanded with a laugh as he came back inside. Mum opened one arm to him and pulled him into the hug, as well, dropping a smooch on his nose.

"I love both my boys," she declared, beaming as she ruffled two handfuls of hair, one red, one green.

As they broke the embrace, Phineas said, "Come on, Ferb!" and headed for the stairs. Ferb trailed along behind him and, once they were in their bedroom, Phineas shut the door. He plunked down on the edge of his bed and said, "OK, tell me what's wrong."

Avoiding his brother's eyes, Ferb gave the blink-and-shrug response.

"Come on," Phineas groaned, "don't do that. I can tell when you're upset. It's something about Vanessa, right?" When Ferb glanced at him in surprise, Phineas explained, "I saw her driving out of here about ninety miles an hour." He winced a little as he guessed, "You didn't try to kiss her, did you?"

"No, I didn't kiss her," said Ferb, offended by the suggestion. What sort of bounder did his brother think he was? With a heavy sigh, Ferb dropped onto his own bed and confessed, "I lied to her."

"Dude!" Phineas's eyes bulged in horror. "How could you do that?"

"Her sentiments exactly," Ferb's shoulders sagged. "Now she's furious with me, she may never speak to me again…"

"Can you blame her?" he challenged, still looking stunned. "You _lied_ to her!"

"I didn't want to hurt her feelings," Ferb tried to explain. The excuse sounded just as pathetic now as it had earlier.

"So you _lied_ to her?" Phineas was still harping on this point. "Ferb, I can't believe you would do that!"

"Well, what would you do?" Ferb snapped at him defensively. "She came all the way over here and gave me a cookie, she wanted to know if I liked it. What was I supposed to tell her?"

"Not a _lie_," was the insistent reply.

Ferb put a hand to his head and closed his eyes. "Phineas, you're not helping."

This didn't stop him. "It's like telling her you don't trust her." Something apparently occurred to him at this point, because he said, with a touch of dread, "You've never lied to me, have you, Ferb?"

"Of course not," he groaned, flopping onto his back. "I'm not in love with _you_."

"But, that's when it's most important to be honest, when you love someone. I mean, how can you say you love someone and then—"

"Phineas!" he barked gruffly. Startled by his own tone, Ferb tempered his voice before he went on. "Either tell me how to fix this or – " He couldn't bring himself to tell his brother to shut up, so he settled for, " – or please stop lecturing me."

"Well," said Phineas, apparently unfazed by the outburst, "the first thing you should do is apologize to her."

"I tried. She wouldn't listen," he muttered morosely.

The red-headed boy got up and moved to sit on the edge of Ferb's bed instead as he said, in a patient voice, as if explaining to a young child, "She was probably still too mad at you to listen. You know, Ferb, if you lied to me, I'd be really angry at first, but I couldn't stay mad at you. After a while, I'd calm down, and we'd talk it over, and things would be okay again." There was a moment of silence before Phineas added, "But, you'd still have to apologize to me first."

Ferb rolled over onto his stomach and propped himself on his elbows as he considered this. "But, that's different. We're brothers. Vanessa…" He sighed. However much he liked to think of her as his friend, the fact remained that he didn't have the deep, familial bond with her that he and Phineas shared. Ferb knew at his core that Phineas would forgive him for nearly anything, certainly for a well-meant mistake like this, but he couldn't be so certain about Vanessa.

His brother had a different view, however, and Ferb was surprised to hear him say, "Vanessa likes you. Seriously," he insisted, when Ferb turned to look at him. "Okay, maybe not a boyfriend-girlfriend kind of like, but, come on, bro! She brought you a cookie! And I know that's not the only time she's come over here looking for you. She wouldn't do that if she didn't like you. And, honestly, if she didn't like you, I don't think she'd be so upset that you lied to her."

Ferb rolled onto his back again, folding his hands behind his head. Maybe Phineas was right. But the question still remained: How was he to patch this up with her and regain her trust?

Late that night, Ferb lay awake, still mulling this over. Phineas had long ago fallen asleep and the house was dark and quiet when he at last kicked off the covers and got out of bed. Padding quietly to his desk, Ferb switched on the little lamp and opened a drawer. In this modern age of tweets and texts and blogs, his beloved Gran in England still treasured the good old-fashioned letter, pen on paper, dropped in the post. From the time that Ferb had moved to America, Gran had kept him stocked with proper stationery, and they had continued to write back and forth in this way. Perhaps, thought Ferb, a good, old-fashioned letter was exactly what was needed in this situation. He took out a sheet of the fine, cream-colored paper and a matching envelope, and sat down to compose. His penmanship was a bit scratchy, but perfectly legible when he cared to make it so, and after thinking it through for a few minutes, he wrote:

_Dear Vanessa,_

_I am writing to offer my humblest apologies for lying to you. My behavior was inexcusable and, even worse, disrespectful._

_True friendship is built on a foundation of trust and honesty. You deserve a friend worthy of your trust, and I am truly sorry to have failed you._

_Vanessa, please know that I have always held you in the highest regard. It is my hope that perhaps someday you will allow me the chance to regain your trust and prove myself the true friend to you that I wish to be._

_Until then, I remain yours, sincerely,_

_Ferb_

Reading it over a couple of times, he carefully folded it and sealed it in the envelope, allowing himself the foolish indulgence of kissing the back of the missive for luck. He would post it in the morning.

_To Be Continued…_


	4. Chapter 4

Cookies and Lies – Part Four

If Phineas had dreamed up an invention that would slow down time, the days could not have felt any longer to Ferb as he awaited a response to his letter. He put on his best stiff-upper-lip demeanor and, as a distraction, poured himself into their daily projects with all the vigor he possessed. He stopped dropping math errors into the blueprints for Baljeet to discover, partly because his heart wasn't in it, but mostly because this now struck him as another form of dishonesty. After all, Baljeet might be hurt if he knew that Ferb had simply been teasing him with this little game all along. The Indian boy did continue to examine Ferb's plans, only to declare, "Well, Ferb, it would appear that your work is improving. I could find nothing wrong with your calculations."

When Phineas had raised the subject of Vanessa again, Ferb had told him that he'd sent her a letter. From that point, on a daily basis, Phineas quizzed him as to whether he had heard back from her, and every time Ferb shook his head no, Phineas tried to say something helpful. "Well, sometimes the mail can take a while." "Maybe she's on vacation." "Maybe she's not staying at her Mom's house." "Maybe she's writing a letter back to you." Ferb certainly hoped it wasn't that last one, because the only circumstance in which he could see Vanessa writing a letter to him would be to say, "Leave me alone!"

It was Saturday afternoon again. The morning's activities were done early, and their friends had scattered, even Isabella. Mum and Dad were at the antique shop, Candace was at Stacy's, Perry was – well, wherever he had disappeared to, he was certain to turn up any minute. Phineas and Ferb were upstairs in their room; Phineas was on the computer, brainstorming ideas for the upcoming week, while Ferb reclined on the bed, attempting to cheer himself up with a favorite book.

That was when the doorbell rang.

Ferb sat bolt upright as if jolted with an electric shock. Phineas's head snapped around and their eyes met. Scrambling off the bed, Ferb lunged to the window and looked out on the street below, hoping to see a little rosewood sedan parked in front of their house – but there was nothing. With a sigh, he shook his head at Phineas, and trudged down the stairs to see who had rung the bell.

It was Her. Ferb was stunned – both in the usual lovely blissful way, and in a stomach-clenching dreadful way. She was not exactly smiling, but she wasn't scowling at him either, and he saw her glance down at her boots and shift her weight hesitantly as she said, in a subdued tone, "Hey, Ferb. How's it going?"

"Hello, Vanessa." Ferb was certain he recognized the sound of his own voice, but he hardly knew he was speaking.

"I got your letter." She looked at him. All he could muster in response was a blink, but he thought he could see the shadow of a smile forming at the corner of her mouth as she said, "I didn't know people even wrote letters anymore. But, I should have known if anyone did, it would be you."

Ferb blinked again and forced the words from his dry throat, "Vanessa, I truly am sorry…"

She held up a hand to silence him, but not in an angry gesture. "I know. Look," she shifted awkwardly on her feet again, "can we sit down?"

"Of course." He leapt at the suggestion and stammered, "Where are my manners? Please, come in."

He ushered her to the sofa, where she perched at one end, and he did the same at the other. Once they were settled, Vanessa spoke. "Ferb, I know why you did it. And – well, that's one of the things I like about you, you're always kind, and you never want to hurt anyone. But promise me you will never do that to me again."

He held up a hand and solemnly swore, "I promise, no more lies."

"When I ask you something, I want an honest answer." The shadowy smile crept hesitantly across her lips as she confessed, "I have a lot of respect for your opinion."

This was more than Ferb could have dared to hope for. Before he could even form an answer to this, they were interrupted by footsteps coming down the stairs, and Phineas asking, "Hey, Ferb, who was at the door?" His eyes answered the question for him, and he said, with a touch of surprise and more than a little awkwardness, "Oh, hi, Vanessa."

"Hey, Phineas," she answered.

"Um, Ferb," he stammered, taking a step back up the stairs, then changing his mind and taking two steps back down, "I'm on my way out – to Baljeet's. I'm going to take back those books I borrowed from him." Looking at his hands and apparently realizing that he wasn't holding any books, Phineas revised this. "I mean, he borrowed some books. From me. I'm going to get them back."

Ferb gave him a look of mixed amusement and exasperation and Phineas, acknowledging his thought, said, "Yeah, maybe I am over-explaining this. I'll see you later." And with that, the red-headed boy left the house.

Ferb turned to find Vanessa grinning and suppressing a snicker at this, and he returned her smile with just a touch of embarrassment.

"So, Ferb," she said, "give it to me straight. Where did I go wrong with the cookies?"

"Well," he glanced at her and waited for her to give him an encouraging nod before he ventured, "the carrots were a bit chunky. It would have been better if they'd been grated more finely."

A thoughtful furrow formed in Vanessa's brow as she considered this, then she said, "But that's how they came in the package."

"Oh."

"What does that look mean?" Vanessa sighed, with a touch of frustration. When he still hesitated, she insisted, "Come on, don't make me pry everything out of you, _talk_ to me! You're not going to hurt my feelings. I want to know what I did wrong."

Ferb took a breath and plunged in. "You used pre-shredded carrot?"

"I take it that's bad," she deduced.

"Well, they're fine for salads and things, but for baking, you really should use fresh carrots, and shred them as finely as you can. And not until you're ready for them to go in."

Vanessa nodded her understanding of this and said, "What else?"

"What sort of butter did you use?" He drew one knee up onto the couch, turning himself to face her.

"Just what my Mom had in the fridge."

"Was it in a tub?" he asked guardedly.

"No-o-o, it wasn't in a tub," Vanessa gave a little roll of her eyes. "Even I know better than that. It was one of those healthy 'No Way is this Butter' kind of things. In sticks," she reiterated in self-defense.

"A good unsalted butter can do wonders when you're baking," Ferb suggested. "That was probably the biggest issue. That and the carrots."

"Wow," said Vanessa, contemplating this. "I wish I'd known that up front." He thought he detected a surprising touch of bashfulness in her expression as she looked at him and suggested, "I'd love to try baking them again – if you'd give me a hand."

She offered him the sweetest of smiles as she said this, and Ferb's heart soared. "Vanessa," he proclaimed, "I know what we're going to do today!"

Her eyes lit up at this, then dimmed almost at once. "Ugh, today's not good. I can't use the kitchen. My Mom's hosting her Mah Jongg club and we'd be in the way."

"We'll use our kitchen," Ferb proposed. "Mum won't mind as long as we clean up. We'll need the recipe," he realized.

Vanessa whipped out her phone. "Uncle Roger emailed it to me, I've probably still got it here." She pulled it up and noted, "We'll have to go to the store for some things." In a flash, she was on her feet. "Come on, Ferb! Let's cook!"

_To Be Continued…_

**A/N - One more chapter to go! THANKS to everyone who is reading and reviewing!**


	5. Chapter 5

Cookies and Lies – Part Five

Ferb dropped Phineas a quick text to let him know what was up, and followed Vanessa outside. Her little car was there after all; she had parked around beside the garage, expecting to find him in the back yard. Vanessa drove them to the Super Food Stuff Mart and Ferb could not have been happier, pushing their cart around the supermarket as they selected carrots and butter and everything else they would need. She paid for their purchases and he loaded them into her car, and they headed back to the Flynn-Fletcher kitchen to start cooking.

Before long, Ferb was setting up the mixer while Vanessa began sifting flour. Apparently, this had been another factor in the initial disaster, as she now grumbled, "Why does the package say it's 'pre-sifted' if you have to sift it all over again?" When Ferb was contemplating the best approach to softening the still-chilled butter, Vanessa asked, "Can't you just stick it in the microwave?" All he did was glance at her in response to this, but this prompted a self-critical sigh as she said, "I'm going to take that as a 'no.' Urgh, I never knew baking was so much like rocket science!"

"Frankly, I think rocket science is a bit easier," Ferb gave her a reassuring grin. As she packed brown sugar into the measuring cup, he ventured, "May I ask you a question?"

"Yeah, sure."

He wasn't quite certain how to phrase this, but she was the one insisting on honesty. "Did you try the cookies, yourself, the first time?"

"You mean, why didn't I know they were bad to begin with?" she translated. "Well, I'd never had them before; I thought maybe that was how they were supposed to turn out. Drusselsteinian cooking can be kind of weird. And I'm really more of a chocolate chip girl," Vanessa confessed.

Once they had things creaming in the mixer, Ferb decided it was time to start on the carrots. Mum had more kitchen gadgets than one could shake the proverbial stick at, so they each took a vegetable peeler and began cleaning carrots over the sink. Without even thinking, Ferb had fallen easily into a rapid rhythm of _whickwhickwhick_, and Vanessa paused in her slower efforts and looked at his handiwork.

"Is there _anything_ you're not good at?" she wondered, in a tone half-admiring and half-dismayed.

Ferb felt his ears tingling as he protested, "Oh, heavens, yes. Tons of things." With a modest smile, he noted, "I happen to like messing about in the kitchen, that's all. Here," he proposed, reaching out for the half-scraped carrot she held. "Why don't you start grating?"

Ferb laid down a clean piece of waxed paper and set the box grater on it. "Try this side, and don't press too hard. Nice long strokes."

Vanessa started with one of his cleaned carrots and lifted the grater to check her first few shreds. Ferb took a look at them and gave her an approving nod, and she set to work in earnest. As he cleaned the last of the vegetables, she said, "You know what this reminds me of? Ratatouille."

Ferb regarded her with a puzzled frown. They were making cookies, not a vegetable casserole.

Vanessa deciphered his expression and clarified, "The movie."

"Oh," said Ferb flatly, laying the last clean carrot within her reach and checking on the mixer.

"Except it's like you're Colette and I'm Linguini," she gave a little chuckle. "Or else, you're Remy and I'm Linguini. But without the hair-pulling."

Vanessa clearly had no idea that she had completely lost him, and Ferb finally confessed, "I've never seen the movie."

"You should, it's really good," said Vanessa. "It's all about Paris, and food…"

"And rats," Ferb muttered.

She must have understood his tone, because she countered, "They're not '_rats.'_" She uttered the word with a mock grimace. "They're _cute_."

"I'm not fond of rats," Ferb informed her. "Especially in the kitchen. How are your carrots coming?" he changed the subject before he found himself confessing to any more phobias in front of her.

They were a beautiful orange haystack of juicy, angel hair shreds, and Ferb took a pinch of them to taste. He gave her a thumbs up, and helped her add them to the mixing bowl. In went the dry ingredients, and at last, Ferb removed the bowl from the mixer, and Vanessa folded in the raisins by hand. "This looks better already," she acknowledged, poking a spoon into the mix. Ferb laid out the pans and Vanessa proceeded to drop spoonfuls of dough onto them. When the first pan was in the oven, and the second pan had been filled and set aside to wait its turn, Ferb picked up the beaters he had taken from the mixer, and held one out to her.

"The Baker's Reward," he smiled, licking off the clumps of batter still clinging to his. "Mmm," he made an appreciative sound. "By George, I think you've got it."

"Total honesty, Ferb," Vanessa warned, then took a taste from her own beater. "Mm, this is pretty good. It's no chocolate chip, but…"

Ferb was very glad his mother was such a culinary enthusiast; she had enough cookie sheets that they never had to reuse anything still warm from the oven, and she had proper cooling racks to hold all of the fresh cookies as they came out. The lumps of dough blossomed in the oven into puffy pillows, almost more like little cakes than cookies, filling the kitchen with a warm, comforting aroma laced with cinnamon and nutmeg. When the first ones were cool enough to touch, they each took a sample. Vanessa waited for Ferb to bite into his first. He chewed thoughtfully, perhaps drawing out the moment a bit longer than necessary while she observed him. The cookie was rich, soft and chewy, the threads of carrot gave it a nice texture, and it was stuffed with sweet raisins. Mouth full, Ferb gave her a thumbs up. Vanessa took a taste for herself, and her eyes went round.

"So _that's_ how they're supposed to turn out! Mmm," she mumbled, devouring another bite. "They're still not chocolate chip, but they're not half bad."

"They're quite good, actually," said Ferb, contemplating the last bite he still held in his fingers.

Whatever was written on his face, Vanessa interpreted it as a hesitation on his part and prompted, "But…?" When he didn't respond, she pressed, "Come on, Ferb, what am I missing?"

"Nothing," he insisted. "They're delicious. But – just personally, you understand – I might cut back on the raisins _just_ a bit. And a handful of chopped walnuts would totally make these."

Vanessa considered the suggestion and smiled. "Maybe next time."

llllllllllllllllll

When Phineas came home, the kitchen was spotless, and Vanessa was gone.

"Everything okay now?" he asked his brother.

"Yes," said Ferb. "Yes it is. And Vanessa left you a cookie. Oh, there you are, Perry," he remarked, as their pet platypus walked into the room. Luckily, Vanessa had left a handful of cookies, and Ferb put one in Perry's dish. "So, what did you do all afternoon?" he quizzed Phineas.

"Hung out at Baljeet's," the other boy answered. "What?" he responded to Ferb's surprised look. "I told you that was where I was going. Wow, these are good," Phineas examined his cookie. Remembering something, he exclaimed, "Oh, Baljeet wanted me to ask you why you stopped the game."

"What game?" For a moment, Ferb had forgotten, then it came back to him, just as Phineas started to explain.

"Something about 'hide and seek,' you putting math problems in the blueprints for him?"

So, thought Ferb, Baljeet had known what he was doing all along. He supposed it shouldn't have come as a surprise. With a little smile, he answered: "Tell him not to worry. We'll start again tomorrow."

THE END

**A/N – The little coda with Phineas was going to be a separate chapter, but I decided just to tuck it in here. And a GOOD carrot-raisin cookie to anyone who chuckled at the callback to "Rhode Island Fletcher and the Pizzazium Skull." Thanks for reading!**


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